For decades the Moore Asylum was home to the forgotten children of Brooklyn Bay. But ever since a scandal forced its closure, the abandoned building has cast an imposing shadow. Until now - when an elderly man is found dead, his body strapped to an ancient gurney. Detective Lucy Harwin, still reeling from a previous case that ended in the devastating murder of a mother and her child, finds herself on the trail of a killer ruthlessly fixated on avenging the asylum's wrongs.

Crime on the Fens: DI Nikki Galena, Book 1

DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she's seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She's gotten tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she's been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she's out.

The Hope That Kills: A DI Fenchurch Novel, Book 1

The body of a young woman is found on the streets of East London, in the shadow of the City's gleaming towers. No ID on her, just hard-earned cash. But there is no doubting the ferocity of the attack. DI Simon Fenchurch takes charge but, as his team tries to identify her and piece together her murder, they're faced with cruel indifference at every turn - nobody cares about yet another dead prostitute.

Dead Wrong: Calladine & Bayliss, Book 1

First a shooting, then a grisly discovery on the common.... Police partners, D.I. Calladine and D.S. Ruth Bayliss race against time to track down a killer before the whole area erupts in violence. Their boss thinks it's all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine's instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate. Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicise the gruesome crimes?

Beneath the Ashes: DI Will Jackman Series, Book 2

When a body is discovered in a burnt-out barn in the Warwickshire countryside, DI Will Jackman is called to investigate. Nancy Faraday wakes up on the kitchen floor. The house has been broken into and her boyfriend is missing. As the case unravels, DI Jackman realises that nothing is as it appears and everyone has a secret. Can he discover the truth behind the body in the fire and track down the killer before Nancy becomes the next victim?

Soho Dead: The Soho Series, Book 1

Kenny Gabriel is three years away from turning sixty, has forty-three quid in the bank and is occasionally employed to find people who would rather not be found. Broke, clientless and depressed, he knows things can't get much worse. Then he's summoned to the office of London media magnate Frank Parr, whose daughter, Harry, is missing - and there's ten grand on the table to get her back. But he and Frank have a history he'd rather not revisit.

Ashes to Ashes: Detective Mark Heckenburg, Book 6

John Sagan is a forgettable man. You could pass him in the street and not realise he's there. But then, that's why he's so dangerous. A torturer for hire, Sagan has terrorised - and mutilated - countless victims. And now he's on the move. DS Mark 'Heck' Heckenburg must chase the trail, even when it leads him to his hometown of Bradburn - a place he never thought he'd set foot in again. But Sagan isn't the only problem. Bradburn is being terrorised by a lone killer who burns his victims to death.

Well of the Winds: A DCI Daley Thriller, Book 5

As the Second World War nears its end, a man is stabbed to death on the shoreline of Kinloch, in the shadow of the great warships in the harbour. Many years later the postman on Gairsay, a tiny island off the coast of Kintyre, discovers that the Bremner family are missing from their farm. When DCI Daley comes into possession of a journal written by his wartime predecessor in Kinloch, Inspector William Urquhart, he soon realises that the Isle of Gairsay has many secrets.

High Force: The DCI Ryan Mysteries, Book 5

Hell has unleashed a demon - and he's coming for you.... Detective Chief Inspector Ryan's worst nightmare has just become a reality. Notorious serial killer The Hacker has escaped prison and kidnapped one of his best detectives from her own home. His brutality is the stuff of legend - Ryan lost his sister and nearly his own life bringing the man to justice first time around. Can Ryan do it again to save his friend? There's a nationwide manhunt underway but the trail has gone cold and fear spreads like a virus.

The Secret of Spellshadow Manor

What if you found yourself recruited to an institute of magic, only to discover you really couldn't do magic? What if your enrollment there was all one big, terrible mistake? If you were at Spellshadow, you'd keep it a secret. A deep, dark, deadly secret... Because Spellshadow's elusive head is hiding a secret of his own - one that Alex soon realizes he and Natalie must uncover at all costs if either of them wishes to leave the Manor alive...and before it's too late.

The Crossing Places

When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company; she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4. When a child's bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them.

Perfect Remains: A DI Callanach Thriller

On a remote Highland mountain, the body of Elaine Buxton is burning. All that will be left to identify the respected lawyer are her teeth and a fragment of clothing. In the concealed back room of a house in Edinburgh, the real Elaine Buxton screams into the darkness. Detective Inspector Luc Callanach has barely set foot in his new office when Elaine's missing persons case is escalated to a murder investigation. Having left behind a promising career at Interpol, he's eager to prove himself to his new team.

Natural Causes: An Inspector McLean Novel, Book 1

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of James Oswald's gripping new Inspector McLean crime thriller Natural Causes, read by the actor Ian Hanmore. A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority - but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.

Manna from Hades: The Cornish Mysteries, Book 1

Eleanor Trewynn is a widow of some years living in Port Mabyn, a small fishing village in Cornwall, England. In her younger days, she traveled the exotic parts of the world with her husband. These days, she's retired and founded the local charity shop. Her niece, Megan Pencarrow, transferred nearby and was recently promoted to the rank of Detective Sergeant.

The Rat Stone Serenade: A DCI Daley Thriller, Book 4

It's December, and the Shannon family are returning home to their clifftop mansion. However, a century ago Archibald Shannon stole the land upon which he built their home, and his descendants have been cursed ever since. When heavy snow cuts off Kintyre, DCI Jim Daley and DS Brian Scott are assigned to protect their illustrious visitors. As an ancient society emerges from the blizzards, ghosts of the past come to haunt the Shannons. As the curse decrees, death is coming. But for whom, and from what?

Summary Justice

The last time Tess de Vere saw William Benson, she was a law student on work experience. He was a 21-year-old, led from the dock of the Old Bailey to begin a life sentence for murder. He'd said he was innocent. She'd believed him. Sixteen years later Tess overhears a couple of hacks mocking a newcomer to the London Bar, a no-hoper with a murder conviction, running his own show from an old fishmonger's in Spitalfields.

Holy Island: The DCI Ryan Mysteries, Book 1

Detective Chief Inspector Ryan retreats to Holy Island seeking sanctuary when he is forced to take sabbatical leave from his duties as a homicide detective. A few days before Christmas, his peace is shattered, and he is thrust back into the murky world of murder when a young woman is found dead amongst the ancient ruins of the nearby priory. When former local girl Dr. Anna Taylor arrives back on the island as a police consultant, old memories swim to the surface, making her confront her difficult past.

The Missing Ones: Detective Lottie Parker, Book 1

When a woman's body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. Both bodies have the same distinctive tattoo clumsily inscribed on their legs. It's clear the pair are connected, but how? The trail leads Lottie to St Angela's, a former children's home, with a dark connection to her own family history. Suddenly the case just got personal.

A High Mortality of Doves

It's 1919. The Derbyshire village of Wenfield is still coming to terms with the loss of so many of its sons when the brutal murder of a young girl shatters its hard-won tranquility. Myrtle Bligh is found stabbed, her mouth slit to accommodate a dead dove. During the war Myrtle volunteered as a nurse, working at the nearby big house, Tarnhey Court. When two more women are found murdered, Inspector Albert Lincoln is sent up from London.

Whisky from Small Glasses: A D.C.I. Daley Thriller, Book 1

DCI Jim Daley is sent from the city to investigate a murder after the body of a woman is washed up on an idyllic beach on the West Coast of Scotland. Far away from urban resources, he finds himself a stranger in a close-knit community. Love, betrayal, fear and death stalk the small town, as Daley investigates a case that becomes more deadly than he could possibly imagine, in this compelling Scottish crime novel infused with intrigue and dark humour.

Murder Has a Motive

Amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine is back in another classic mystery from the author of Murder for Christmas. When Mordecai Tremaine emerges from the train station, murder is the last thing on his mind. But then again, he has never been able to resist anything in the nature of a mystery - and a mystery is precisely what awaits him in the village of Dalmering.

A teacher goes missing under suspicious circumstances and a man is murdered at a local reservoir. For Detective Robyn Carter, there's no obvious link between the cases. But as she starts to delve into them, her investigations lead her to Abigail, perfect wife and mother to beautiful little Izzy. What was Abigail's connection to the victims? And why is she receiving threatening messages from an anonymous number?

Snowblind: Dark Iceland

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors - accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik - with a past that he's unable to leave behind.

Lies

Gripping and packed with twists and turns, this stunning thriller will make you question whether we can ever really trust the ones we love.... What if your whole life was based on lies? When Joe Lynch stumbles across his wife driving into a hotel car park while she's supposed to be at work, he's intrigued enough to follow her in. And when he witnesses her in an angry altercation with family friend Ben, he knows he ought to intervene.

Publisher's Summary

A boy's body is found in a churchyard. His heart had been cut out....

DI Sam Clayton has never dealt with such an extreme crime in the quiet Norfolk villages that are part of his patch. When a waitress, Emma Dawson, disappears, it looks like the police might have a serial killer on their hands. Emma seems to have been part of cultish group obsessed with contacting the dead via a medieval mystic. But a mysterious Frenchman and one of the local nature wardens are also suspects. The mystery is further complicated by the locals' reluctance to share their secrets with the police. DI Clayton's team also harbor some tragic secrets and it looks like only one of his detectives will be kept on, even if they do catch the vicious killer. When another child disappears, DI Clayton faces a race against time to prevent any further crimes. Not only that, but he must confront local superstitions and keep his team under control as violence threatens to spiral out of control.

I bought this book both in the ebook and audible version. It is based in Norfolk, where I live, and was anticipating a happy few hours reading/listening. The book itself is ok - the plot has promise. But the audible version is absolutely dreadful. Michael Healy has no idea of how to intonate what he is reading, and his attempts at a norfolk accent.... please can I point out that Norfolk is NOT near Birmingham? I will be avoiding books that he has narrated from now on.

The story was a bit silly and there was some clunky dialogue but the narration was awful. The reader sounded as if he was reading a script with stage directions and he appeared to have no enthusiasm for the lines. I checked out a couple of his other narrated books and he seemed much better on those so maybe he was unimpressed with his material. I would tend to agree with him but I did listen to the end though I probably won't read any more by this author.

This may have been a decent story but it was hard to tell.The narrator adopted a perpetually sarcastic tone. The comedy French accents and terrible French pronunciation were excruciating. Why was he allowed to get away with it?